Hagerstown uses seventh inning surge to defeat JV Spartans

Walker Smith homered to left field in the first inning on Tuesday night to give the Connersville JV Spartans an early lead against Hagerstown. The Spartans held a 2-1 advantage through four innings and remained tied at 4-4 heading into the final frame.

Hagerstown scored eight runs in the seventh inning to secure a 12-4 victory.

Kooper Grizzell pitched six innings for the Spartans in his first start of the year. Coach Matt Watkins noted the performance of Grizzell and catcher Brayton Bentley as specific points of interest from the season opener.

“I think improvement and resiliency would be my words,” Watkins said. “I told them before the game, good things are going to happen and bad things are going to happen. Don’t let those bad things bug you. Don’t get too high or too low, stay even-keeled.”

Watkins reported that all nine players in the lineup contributed a positive play during the contest.

“Kooper Grizzell looked great on the mound,” Watkins said. “First outing of the year, he had us in a great spot going into the seventh after six really good innings. I think Brayton Bentley did a great job behind the plate today. It was the first start for all these guys, but I think those two looked really good.”

The Spartans are 0-1 and will travel to Batesville next Monday. Watkins indicated that the team will spend the week of practice focused on plate discipline and aggressive hitting.

“We want to focus on our approach at the plate and try to implement some things that Hagerstown did well,” Watkins said. “Our guys need to be aggressive and attack that first strike that we see so we don’t get ourselves in a hole.”

Hagerstown 0 0 1 0 3 0 8 12

Connersville 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 4

Next Game: Monday, April 6 at Batesville (6:00 PM)